Tag: promoting health

Indians are Deficit in these 5 Essential Nutrients

Indians are Deficit in These 5 Nutrients

A myriad of micro-nutrients and macro-nutrients are required for a healthy human body. Deficiency in one or more nutrients can lead to multiple disorders including a few chronic diseases. It is therefore essential to maintain a balanced diet so that all the essential vitamins and minerals are supplied to the body for its smooth functioning and to keep fit and healthy.

In one of the reports published by The Asian Age dated 23rd August 2019, it was mentioned that climate, region and geography of a country decides the type of nutrition available in the plants grown. It was also stated that the Indian diet is considered to be the healthiest of all the diets which means that India has the right topography and climate to produce healthy and nutritious food.

Despite this, a nutrition report by Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found that Indians are deficit in the following 5 vitamins and minerals:

Iron

Iron is extremely essential to maintain the right hemoglobin levels in the blood. Deficiency in iron will lead to anemia. A study by WHO found that adolescent girls in India are highly deficit in iron. 50% of 200 girls surveyed were found to be anemic.

Iron deficiency can be prevented by in taking iron rich food or external supplements. Foods rich in iron are shellfish, spinach, liver, offal, legume, red meat, pumpkin seeds, broccoli, tofu, banana and dark chocolate. Introducing these foods in the diet will improve the iron in the blood.

Iodine

Iodine is another essential mineral required for the proper functioning of the thyroid gland, secretion of the growth hormone and maintaining our body weight. Deficiency of iodine can lead to goiter, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, cretinism, decreased fertility rate, increased mental retardation and mental retardation.

It is very alarming that 263 districts out of 325 districts surveyed, were found to be severely iodine deficit in India. It is important to introduce iodine rich food like cod, tuna, seaweed, shrimp, eggs and dairy products like milk, yogurt and cheese to meet the iodine needs of the body. Iodized salt is the most common and easy way to supplement the iodine deficiency in the body.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is required to have a normal and healthy vision. It is also essential for our immune system and reproduction. It helps for the proper functioning of the vital organs like heart, lungs and kidneys. Deficiency in Vitamin A causes causes Nyctalopia (Night Blindness), Xeropthalmia, Keratomalacia, and in acute deficiency it can lead to complete blindness. It increases the risk of respiratory and diarrheal infections, decreased growth rate and slow bone development in children.

The Asian Age stated that breastfeeding a child for at least 6 months can eradicate the risk of Vitamin A deficiency in children. Foods like apple, carrots, bell peppers, butter, salmon, cheddar, sweet potato, winter squash, kale, collards, etc. are rich source of Vitamin A.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is indispensable for healthy skin and boosting immunity of the body. It protects against cardio vascular diseases, prenatal health problems, eye disease, skin wrinkling; reduces stress; helps in formation of collagen; iron absorption; quick wound healing and maintenance of cartilages, bones and teeth. Deficiency of Vitamin C can lead to scurvy, gum disease and skin problems. It is very frightening to hear that studies in India found 73% of people with more than 60 years of age were found deficit in Vitamin C.

Vitamin C is richly found in cantaloupe, orange, broccoli, red cabbage, green pepper, red pepper, kiwi, tomato juice, lemon, etc. These fruits should be introduced in the diet without fail to replenish the loss of Vitamin C.

Vitamin D

The sunshine Vitamin D is the most common nutrient deficit in the global population. It is obtained mainly through sunlight and is also abundantly found in milk, fish, fish liver oil, egg yolks, and fortified dairy and grain products. It is required to build strong bones, form myelin sheath around the nerves, boosts immunity against common infection, reduce allergies, perform cell growth modulation and neuro-muscular functions.

Its deficiency can cause Rickets, osteoporosis, falls, cancer of prostate, colon, breast, lung marrow/lymphoma, hypertension, sclerosis, type 1 and type 2 diabetes. IT is therefore important to go out in the early morning sun at least twice a week for 5 to 40 minutes.

Having the balanced diet of all these essential nutrients will make the body healthier and fit. It is better to self-care and adapt preventive care to delay getting a disease than getting a disease due to the above mentioned deficiencies.

Self-Care – A Need of the Hour

#knowtobacco
How Do You Self-Care? Write Your Comments Below.

When World Health Organization (WHO) released its first guidelines on “Self-Care Interventions for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Right”, there was an immediate realization of the gravity of self-care interventions. As per estimates, WHO mentioned that the world will fall short of 13 million healthcare providers by 2035 leaving at least 400 million people devoid of necessary healthcare services.

It is imperative to adopt self-care in different facets of healthcare to fill this gap and ensure that people have access to essential services as required for adequate treatment and support. Self-Care implies that a person or their family “promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health-care provider” (WHO). This means that one should adopt the following habits in their routine with immediate effect to ensure that they are able to care for themselves and get the right treatment on time without delay:

IDENTIFY ANY CHANGE IN THE BODY

  • One must identify any sign or change occurring in one’s body. It may be a small change or a major one, which does not occur routinely.
  • Search for references on the internet for the cause of the sign and symptoms and self-detect through available kits to identify the cause of the symptom
  • If one is unable to find out the source of the symptoms, then report it to the concerned physician immediately and get it diagnosed to seek proper treatment

STOP LIVING WITH THE DISEASE

In India, it is a normal practice to procrastinate visiting a doctor and people get used to the symptoms occurring in their body. They start living with those symptoms and after sometime it becomes so severe that visiting a doctor become inevitable. There the patient gets to know about the severity of the disease and that they should have visited earlier when the first signs occurred. Make it a habit to not neglect your own health, for not only will you suffer your entire family will suffer and experience a lot of stress and trauma.

GO FOR YEARLY FULL BODY CHECK-UP

Doctors recommend to have a full body check-up once a year to know the current health status and compare it with the previous record. This helps the person to know what they should be doing to keep them healthy.

ADOPT HEALTHY HABITS

Every healthcare professional will tell you to eat healthy and exercise regularly. These are the 2 most important aspects of keeping healthy habits. But there are a few more which are as critically important as eating healthy and exercising.

  • Maintaining hygiene in everyday life both personally and socially
  • Teaching kids to maintain personal hygiene and keeping surrounding clean
  • Not spitting anywhere and everywhere
  • Avoiding smoking in public places, hospitals, children, etc.
  • Not reusing disposables of family members
  • Adopting preventive care

The list is endless. It is upto us how well we adopt the healthy habits, practice, preach and propagate them to the community to make our place greener and healthier to live.

EXTEND SUPPORT

There are many instances that a particular disease is looked upon as social stigma in our society and those suffering from them are completed neglected or socially ignored. HIV AIDS is one such disease. In such instances, the patient becomes morally depressed and loses self-confidence. This impacts their psychological behavior and they give up on their treatment easily leading to their death. We need to become more supportive and prevent the community from inflicting such taboos. We must support the patient emotionally and financially so that they are able to cope with the disease and get themselves treated.

This reminds me of people who want to quit smoking or chewing. They face similar problems while quitting – LACK OF SUPPORT! If we care for them and extend support during their withdrawal symptoms and cravings, they can quit with ease and determination and will require minimum physician’s intervention.

Remember one simple mantra:
जब भी देखो छोटा दाना,
उसकी पहचान जल्द ही करना,
कैंसर को ना बनने दो नासूर,
शिग्रह करो इसे दूर!

#knowtobacco
Get the “Chota Daana” screened and diagnosed asap

Self-Care from tobacco use is the need of the hour. India needs the non-tobacco consumers to adopt a tobacco user and help them quit by acting as a buddy to them. Cessation experts are available for help in case of failing to quit by self. They make the quit process easy and simple. Identifying the early signs, late signs, advanced signs and co-morbidity of the harms of tobacco use will help the individual get themselves treated on time and prevent oral cancer, lung cancer, CVD, Stroke, COPD< Astham, TB, and other NCDs from happening. This is the best and immediate self-care one can do for themselves.

It should be noted here that smoking releases carcinogens and those inhaling it are also at a risk of chronic diseases from this Second-Hand Smoke (SHS). Detection kits are available to let you know the impact of SHS on your body. This makes it necessary for non-smokers to take care of themselves too for they might be exposed to SHS without them realizing it.

In all, Self-Care is extremely essential for everyone for early realization, detection, diagnosis and treatment of the diseases occurring in their body. This is my appeal to everyone to have your own guidelines for self-caring your body. This will help you live longer and disease free. It is also an appeal to all the tobacco users, both smokers and chewers, to start self-caring for themselves as tobacco use will definitely cause them some chronic disease at some point in their lives.